


Ties

by Michelle Christian (movies_michelle)



Category: Invisible Man
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-06
Updated: 2010-01-06
Packaged: 2017-10-05 22:21:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/46627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/movies_michelle/pseuds/Michelle%20Christian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mastiff dog may love a puppy cur for no more reason than that the twain have been tied up together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ties

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to mlyn and gattagrigia for the very speedy beta work. This was written for the LJ community hot_donuts 2009 fic fest. My prompt was "Tied up." The story is set in late season 2, before the finale.

A man by the name of Tennyson once wrote, "A mastiff dog may love a puppy cur for no more reason than that the twain have been tied up together."

Now, I'd never call Bobby Hobbes a puppy cur--at least not to his face—but there were definite similarities at times.

*

"Fawkes," Hobbes whispered, in that way people do sometimes when they're not sure whether or not they want the other person to be awake.

Darien grunted, hoping Hobbes would take the hint and let him sleep.

"Fawkes, do you like me?"

Apparently, their "well-oiled machine" was rusty in places.

"Hobbes, please, can we talk tomorrow?" Darien pled, pulling the blankets further up.

"You think I'm good looking?"

"Yes, Bobby," Darien said into his pillow. "You're the prettiest girl in school."

Bobby didn't say anything else, which Darien should have been grateful for, but made his half-asleep mind uneasy enough to keep it from finishing the journey. He rolled over, throwing an arm and leg across Hobbes casually. Not cuddling.

"You have this big bed and you have to always take up most of my half," Bobby fake-groused, enough affection in his voice to make Darien relax. If Hobbes was bitching at him, he was okay.

He was just drifting back to sleep when he heard, "Fawkes, I'm funny, right?"

Darien groaned into Bobby's chest. He was obviously not going to sleep any time soon. "Yeah, you're a regular Yakov Smirnoff," he said, propping himself up on one arm and looking down at a pensive Bobby Hobbes. "Pensive" and "Bobby Hobbes" were never good in the same sentence. "What's going on, partner?"

Bobby rubbed his hand against Darien's arm, but didn't look at him, just continued to lay in the moonlight, his left arm arranged under his head. "Just thinking," he said.

Darien smiled at him, conspiratorially. "Thinking? Always a dangerous prospect with Bobby Hobbes."

Bobby smiled, though it was slight; he still wouldn't look at Darien. "You got that right, my friend. Criminals of the world: beware."

Darien grinned, but when Bobby didn't say any more, he nudged him with his knee. "Hey, what's going on?" He'd been assured that persistence was one of his more annoying traits.

"Would--" Bobby cut himself off, then looked at him for the first time since Darien woke up. "Would you be here if it weren't for the gland?"

Darien looked at him, puzzled. "I'm pretty sure your doorman would let me in, visible or not."

"Not here, Einstein," Bobby said, and waved his hand at the bed, the room, the two of them, the world at large. "Here."

Oh.

Oh.

Part of Darien was surprised this hadn't come sooner than four months into this new aspect of their relationship. Bobby Hobbes's track record with relationships wasn't the greatest--and was a bit daunting, in fact. Bobby's neuroses seemed to have neuroses, but Darien had figured he lived with the best and worst of his partner already, so adding sex couldn't do anything but add another thing in the good column. He'd been just as surprised as anyone, though, when he turned out to be right.

But Darien had also never seen this coming. Bobby had his issues--and the pharmaceuticals to go with them--but insecurity had never seemed to be one of them.

"Hey," he said softly, nudging Hobbes again with his knee. "How could I say no to Bobby Hobbes?"

Bobby smiled back, leaning up to kiss him. "Thanks, kid." He laid back down, as if settling in for the night.

Yet Darien knew he'd said the wrong thing, taken a wrong turn somehow and missed the point. He laid there, wide-awake now, and thought seriously about Bobby's question.

Would he be with Bobby if it weren't for the gland?

On the broader spectrum, he wouldn't even know Bobby if it weren't for the gland: not a lot of times where a two-bit burglar and a government agent meet up, certainly not in a friendly manner.

On the narrower one, the one he knew Hobbes was talking about, Darien had to admit that there were a lot of reasons it was just easier to be with Bobby. For one thing, he didn't have to worry about the inevitable embarrassing lack of visibility during moments of adrenaline highs. Which didn't explain why he wasn't with, say, Claire, other than that Claire was more like a sister, and also still scared him a little.

Like a sister.

Bobby knew most, though not all, of his secrets, and had never turned away from him. Bobby had stood by him, protected him and trusted him. That went a long way. It explained why they were friends, but did it really answer the question Bobby was asking? Because Darien knew it wasn't just about why he was here.

_Did you come here because of the gland?_ Bobby would never actually ask. _Where will you be when you get your fondest birthday wish, and the gland is gone?_

That was the real question, and Darien wasn't sure how to answer it in a way that he could voice and Bobby would accept.

Darien was man enough to admit, at least to himself, that Bobby wasn't who he would have gone for, BG (Before the Gland), but that didn't change the fact that Bobby was, well, Bobby: attractive, crazy, loyal, irritating as hell, and the best thing in Darien's psychotic world.

So, yeah, what happened when Darien's world stopped being psychotic? Would there still be room in it for Bobby Hobbes, when it was big enough to encompass more than just the two of them?

The thing about their relationship was that it wasn't so much complex as Escher-esque: intricate, maddening, and dizzying, with patterns and perspectives that seemed to change, but never did. People on the outside of it seemed alternately amused, fascinated, and annoyed by it, which was okay, since Darien felt the same way from the inside, at times.

At this point, Darien didn't know if he could extricate Bobby from his life; he knew he didn't want to. Bobby was in him deeper than any gland could ever be.

How to say that to Bobby, though, and make sure he understood? Darien decided the best thing he could do was what they always did: trust each other to get it.

So he rolled over and stuck his cold feet on Bobby's, enjoying the flinch and muffled "Hey!" (as always), and put his arm over his partner's side again. Still not cuddling.

"I'll be here," he said softly into Bobby's ear.

Bobby said nothing, but reached for one of his hands and squeezed.

He got it.

-30-


End file.
